Different Medium, Different Audience

As more content becomes available through new media, older mediums, such as broadcasting, seek to keep up with the audience. The Internet is able to hold a diverse amount of information, showing both the content that the elite want and content that represents popular culture. Unlike broadcast television and radio, who's audiences are getting older and older, the Internet is able to attract many different age groups. Broadcasting is now, more than ever, trying to find the balance between popular content and content for the elite to maximize their viewers. Broadcast journalism, some who are publicly funded, rely too heavily on the government, possibly effecting the way/things they present to the audiences. And because of this relationship, television and radio are hesitant in reaching out to popular culture, presenting information to the mass population. With the aging population of television and radio audiences, broadcasters are reaching out to both the elites and popular cultures in different ways.

           

It is becoming harder and harder for broadcasters to decide on what content to produce on its networks or stations. Not only do they have to think about satisfying both elites and the mass population, they have to worry about the aging population of their audiences. Many of the younger generations don't turn to the television for information anymore. According to Michael Schneider, "the median age for the broadcast networks keep rising, as traditional television is no longer necessarily the first screen for the younger set." On one side, broadcasters want to show the younger side of news, merging it with pop culture, attracting younger audiences. On the other side, they don't want to lose the hard facts and seriousness of news that elites look for in content, not to mention the funds that they may be receiving from them.

Publicly funded broadcast networks have always had the ties with the government, always showing what the government wants. But when these networks try to remove that tie, they seem to compromise themselves. Trevor Butterworth states in his article, The Future of Journalism, "publicly funded news organizations may want to prove the independence by being highly critical of the government, but thinly veiled antagonism based on poor reporting or public prejudice has, for example, seriously damaged the BBC's credibility." To keep the balance between presenting elite content and popular content, broadcasters should distinguish a reasonable distance from the government, listening to what they want to see from the network, but still be able to stay independent. Broadcast journalists should still be able to give the information to the audience and allow them to control what they do with it, and not present information about how the government wants them to act. Credibility in the information presented will always bring the elite audiences to the news and content. So even though broadcasters may go against the government from time to time, presenting the truth will bring elite audiences to the television or the radio.

As the Internet further extends it reach into the journalistic practices, the more younger audiences will turn to it as a primary source of information. To maintain their status with that of the Internet, broadcasters must make room for the type of content that the Internet has, popular culture. Offering more popular content and will allow broadcasting to stay in competition with the Internet. The Internet may be able to hold many things, but what television and radio can offer the live visuals that Internet has but cannot sum up together in one location or period. The Internet has the content, but the information is sometimes fragmented, links that lead to the next, taking away from the attention span of the audiences. Television can reach the mass population by giving them a summary of a story or news headline in one place, putting the pieces together for the audiences so that they only have to pay attention to one thing, the person reporting.

            

The Internet has affected the balance between the elites and the popular in broadcasting, tipping broadcasters towards the elite, and taking the popular content onto the Web. Broadcasters can re-establish this balance by distinguishing a reasonable space between themselves and the government and presenting their own ideas and content for the mass population. Broadcasting audiences are aging, but by appealing to the mass population, they can slowly bring the younger generation and the viewers back to broadcast journalism.